Waterproof container for burial caskets



LSWMH E. fimmam ET AL WATERPROOF CONTAINER F-OR BURIAL GASKETS Filed Nov. 25, 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet l 14:. MW INVENTOR- XTTORNEY.

WATERPROOF CONTAINER FOR BURIAL GASKETS I Filed Nov. 25, 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 m away/Mam INVENTOR.

ATTORNEY.

Patented Feb. 23. 1926.

warren STATES rarer OFFICE.

ELMER B. RARDON, OF COLUMBUS, AND HENRY HQ EARDON, OF NEWARK, OHIO.

WATERPROOF CONTAINER FOR BURIAL GASKETS.

Application filed November 25, 1922.

To all whom it may concern. 7

Be it known that we, Emma B. RAHDON and HnNnY H. RARDON, citizens of the United States of America, residing, respectively, at Columbus, n the county of Franklin and State of Ohio, and at Newark, in

. O the county oflncking and otatc of 01110,

have invented certain new and useful 1111-- the symmetrical appearance thereof.

In the past, in the protection of the corpse against the entrance of water it, has been the practice to either provide an exterior vault structure to surround and seal the casket or to provide a hermetically sealed container for the casket. In all instances, resulting in satisfactory protection of the corpse, these sealing means have been of integral main body structure and in some cases it has been necessary to cement or seal the ends or other sections. Furthermore, in the case of sealing the corpse within the casket it has been necessary to provide an expensive and impractical container or a container of opaque material that would be inserted in the casket after the usual viewing of the body and before the burial thereof, and in either case this additional container has made it necessary to change the shape of the casket and thus distort the low symmetrical lines which through custom have become a necessity in this art.

Our invention primarily contemplates the provision of means which will positively protect the corpse from any water which may surround the casket, and which means is of such construction that it may be applied to any casket, to receive and hold the body in a normal raised position, to position the body at any desired angle about the longitudinal axis of said means and to lower the corpse within the casket. This is occomplished by means of a very simple, substan tial and compact structure which comprises Serial N0. 603,323.

a container formed of two overlapping half cylinders, means for rotatably supporting, securing and locking said cylinders in a plurality of positions and means directly controlled by the movement of the casket lid. for raising and lowering the container within the casket. I

One of the objects of our invention consists in the provision of a water-tight corpse containing device which is formed of two elements preferably semi-cylindrical in cross-section and which elements are independently movablc'to expose the corpse or to seal the same. In this case, the shape and relative positioning of the two elements is effective to receive the body and expose the same to View or to cover the body to make it water-proof and merely by virtue of the position of the two elements 01"- the container; I

A. further object of our invention is the provision of a supporting means for freely and rotatably supporting each of the body container sections, and which is of such a form as to be attachable to any commercial casket and adapted to lock the sections in any desired position. The result is that these container sections may be freely inserted or lifted out of the casket at any time without the necessity of any adjustments or removal of any parts and that one section may be swung around and above the other rotatable section and locked in that position. Furthermore, we have provided means for adjusting said container sections, whilein open position, to a special display position, so that whenever our container is used with a cmmnercial quarter-drop casket the adjacent cdgesof the sections may be locked substantially flush with the bottom of the quarter-drop with the rear edges of the receiving section raised.

A further object of our invention has to do with the provision of means for varying the position of body container sections relative to the casket. This structure is so in ranged in combination with the container supporting means that the container may be raised or lowered either in open or closed position. This is particularly advantageous because it makes possible the ready raising of the open containerfor display purposes and, at the same time, makes possible the lowering of the container for closing the casket lid, all of this being feasible with the standard type of casket and lid.

Many other features of our invention will be apparent as this description progresses and will be brought out in the claims appended hereto. These various objects of our invention are preferably obtained by the structure illustrated in the drawings, wherein similar characters of reference designate corresponding parts, and wherein Figure 1 is a perspective view, partly cut away, of our novel container as appliedto a commercial casket, and showing the container in raised and open position with the outer half cylinder swung and locked beneath the inner half cylinder.

FigureQ is a detail fragmentary view of the supporting device and showing the two half cylinders locked in overlapped position. V j

Figure 3 is a detail view similar to Figure 2 but showing the two half cylinders locked in open and tilted quarter-drop position.

Figure t is a fragmentary detail view, partly in section of a modified form of supporting device and showing the outer half cylinder and its integral shaft locked in open position and the inner half cylinder pivotally carried by one end of said shaft.

Figure 5 is a diagrammatical end elevation of our container as applied to a casket and showing the supporting means, the half cylinders andthe casket lid in raised open position in solid lines and in lowered ope position in dotted lines.

Figure 6 is a diagrammatical view similar to Figure 5 but showing the two cylinders in overlapped, locked and raised position.

Figure 7 is a view similar to Figure 6 but showing the closed container in lowered position and also showing the position of the supporting bearing and lever in lowered position.

Figure 8 is a view similar to Figure 5 but showing the container applied to a halfhinged casket and illustrating the manner of raising the container by raising part of the lid while the other part of the lid remains c osed. It also shows an extra shallow casket wherein the corpse container is tnly lowered when the outer half cylinder is in its upper position. i

in the drawings, and with particular refer nee to Figure 1, the casket may be designated '1 and the lid therefor 2. The front side of the casket is also shown provided with a quarterlie section 3. The casket and itslid are merely shown conventionally because it will be obvious that they may take any form consistent with the many various types of commercial casket structures.

Adapted to be secured to the inner ends of the casket, by any suitable means, are the guide plates at. T he plates 4-. are of bifur -ate shape at their upper ends and are formed to receive and guide a'supporti'ng bearing 5.

The sides of the bearings 5 and the-adiacent sides of the plates 4 are preferably vertical so thatthe supporting hearing may be reciprocated vertically or lifted from the casket. The bottom 6 of the bearing 5 however is semi-circular:in'shape to con orm tothe shape of the closed end of the plate t whereby the bearing 5 in its lowered position will be supported or partially supported by the plate 4.

The bearing 5 is provided with a locking pin 7 which extends vertically from the shaft aperture 8 through the top of the bearing. This pin 7 is resiliently held in locking po sition by means of a suitable spring 9.

Rotata-bly carried by the supporting bearings 5 are the stub shafts 10. These shafts are secured at their inner ends by suitable means to an inner corpse containing member 11. This containing member 11 is substantially in the form of a half cylinder with the exception that its bottom 12 is preferably flat and its upper edge 13 extends a disti nee a above its longitudinal axis let. Sealing plates 15 covering the inner end of the stub shafts make the inner container air-tight and may be used to secure the shafts to the inner container. It will be obvious that the height of the overlap a above the axis lt may be varied to suit any given conditions.

The stub shaft is provided with key ways 16 and 17 which are positioned to be engaged by the locking pin 7. The locking pin registering with the key-way 16 will lock the container in an upright position as best shown in Figures 1 and 2, and vgistering with the key-way 17 will tilt and lock the container 11 so that the edge 18 will be practically level with the lower edge 19 of the quarter-drop 3. Thus, this positioning of the inner container member 11 makes it possible to tilt the body whenever the container is used with a quarter-drop casket.

Designed to enclose the inner container 11 and rotatably supported upon the shaft 10 is an outer air-tight container element 2). This outer container 20 is preferably in the shape of a half cylinder and is substantially a duplicate of the inner member 11 except that it is slightly larger. Its severed edge 21 extends a distance 7) past the common axis lat. v

The ends of'this outer member 20 are rovided with suitable sleeve extensions 22 which are rotatably carried by the shafts 10 and the supporting bearings 5, the bearing surface between the sleeve and shaft being such as to render the container member 20 air-tight up to the edge 21. The outer end of'one sleeve 2 2'is preferably provided with slots 24, 25 and 26 as best shown in Figures 1, 2 and 3. The slot 24 is designed to register with key-way 16 and lock pin 7 whenever the two half cylinders 11 and are in open position as shown in Figure 1, the slot is designed to register withkeylway 1G and pin 7 when the outer member i rotated to cover the inner member ll as best shown in Figures 2 and 6, and the slot 26 i is designed to register with the key-war 17 and pin 7 when the two half cylinders 11. and 20 are tilted so that their respective edges 18 and 27 are level with the casket edge 19. It will be obvious that when the outer halt cylinder is rotated and inverted. to cover the top of the inner halt cylinder 11, that the two severed edges 21 and 13-ot the half cylinder will overlap a distance c Figures 2 and 7, whereby the outercylinder will be eli ective to seal the interior of the con tainers against the entrance of water, and without moving the common axis of the halfcylinders.

llulcrumed to the inner ends of the casket at suitable points 28, and extending beneath the stub shaft 10 between the ends of the outer halt cylinder 20 and the ends of the casket, are the supporting levers 29. The other ends of these levers are pivotally connected to links 30, slotted as at 31, and pivotally connected at their upperends 32 to the casket lid 2. Thus, whenever the lid is raise 'l the link 30 will serve to raise one end otthe lever 29 and thereby raise the shafts 10 and the half cylinders 11 and 20. This movement is clearly illustrated in Figure 5 where the half cylinder, supporting bearings and lid are shown in raised position in solid lines and in lowered position in dotted lines. It will be understood that the half cylinders and lid may be locked in raised and open position by any suitable means such as pins extending through the slots 31 into the casket and bearing against the upper end of the slot 31.

In the modification shown in Figure -l the structure substantially identical with the the exception that the stub shaft 33 is integral with the outer half cylinder 20 and is provided with an inward extension 3st which pivotally carries the inner halt cylinder 11 by inc-ans of a suitable hearing or boss 35. The boss 35 is provided with a set screw36 designed to engage with a key-way 37 in the extension 3% so that the inner halt cylinder ll may be tilted by merely forcing the end of the screw 36 in the key way 3'7 and then tiltin the outer half cylinder 20 so that the locking pin 7 engages the proper key-way 26 in the shaft 33. This shatt 33 is also provided with key-ways 24. and. 25 which corresponds with the slots 24 and 25 in the sleeve and for the same purpose.

In the normal use and operation of our water-proof container the plate 4 and levers 29 are secured to the casket and the half cylinders and attached bearings lifted into place. \Vhen the corpse is prepared for the customary\dewing" the lid raised anl the containeris simultaneously raised to a level orwtilted position in accordance with the style of the casket. Before the burial of the corpse the outer halt cylinder 20 is rotated until in the inverted position shown in Figure 6, where it is automatically locked by the resilient pin '7 The entire container with the corpse is then lowered within the, casket by lowering the casketlid as shown in Figure 7. The operation of the form shown in Figure 8 is identical except that part of the lid'remains closed during the viewing of the body.

It will be understool that in the form shown in Figure 4, the inner half cylinder ll. may he removed or inserted at any time without removing the outer halt cylinder.

It will also be understood that it is not necessary to lower the half cylinders when in open position as shown in dotted lines in Figure 5, but that whenever the corose is to be lowered or the lid closed the outer cylinder 20 may be inverted. as shown in Figure 6, so that the distance lowered. is only the distance between the flat bottom of the inner halt cylinder and the outer halt cylinder. wherein the outer halt cylinder 20 ju t clears the bottom of the casket in open sition as shown, and when this outer halt cylinder is inverted to cover the corpse the entire container may be lowered until the flat bottom of the inner half cylinder touches the bottom of the casket.

It will be apparent that we have provided an extremely simple burial container that may be easily used with any commercial casket without change in the casket and which will be effective to seal the holy against water, by merely changing the relative position of the container elements. It will also be obvious that our container may he raised and lowered within the. casket so that the body may he quickly and neatly presented when the casket is opened, or may be lowered in order to preserve the natural low lines of the casket so as to make a pleasing appearance to the eye.

lit will be understood that by the term casketdas used in the application and in the claims is n'ieant a casket of standard construction in which the corpse is immediately placed in contrast to the vault in. which the casket has in the prior art been placed in order to render such casket water proof.

. Having thus described. our invention, what we claim is 1. A burial casket comprising a rotatable corpse receiving member positioned within the casket.

2. In combination with a burial casket 01" a rotatable corpse receiving member and means movable within the casket for rendering said receiving member water-proof.

This is best illustrated in Figure 8,

3. In combination with a burial casket of a rotatable corpse receiving member, means movable within said casket for rendering said receiving member water-proof, and

" means for raising and lowering said member.

1 A burial casket comprising means for receiving the corpse, means positioned within the casket for rendering said first named means water-proof and means for locking said receiving means in a plurality of positions. I

5. A burial casket comprising means for receiving the corpse, means movable about an axis for rendering said first named means air-tight and means for locking said last named means in a plurality of positions.

6. A burial casket comprising a waterproof container and means controlled by the lid of the casket for raising and lowering said container within said casket.

T. A burial casket comprising a corpse receiving member, a sealing member, means for bodily moving said members within said casket, and means for locking said sealing member in a plurality of positions inde pendently of said receiving member.

8. A burial casket comprising a corpse receiving member, a sealing member, means for bodily moving said members within said vasket, said receiving member'being freely removable, and means for locking said sealing member in a plurality of rotatable positions.

9. A burial casket comprising a corpse receiving member a sealing member, means for bodily moving said members within said casket, and meansfor locking said members in various relative positions.

10. In a burial casket a rotatable container comprising a corpsereceiving member, a relatively movable sealing member and means for bodily l'noving' said members within said casket.

ll. In a burial casket a rotatable container comprising a corpse receiving mem her, a sealing member, means for bodily moving said members within said casket, and means for locking said members in various relative positions.

12. A burial casket comprising an inner half cylinder and outer half cylinder, means for revolving said outer cylinder around said inner cylinder to render said inner cylinder water-proof, and means for raising and lowering said cylinders within said casket.

13. A. burial casket comprising a corpse receiving member, means for rotatably adjnsting said member and means controlled by the casket lid for raising and lowering said member within the casket.

14. A burial receptacle comprising a casket, a corpse receiving member positioned within said casket and supporting means for said member removably attachable to the ends of said casket and of such shape that said member may be freely removed.

15. A burial receptacle consisting of a casket, a corpse receiving member positioned within the casket, asealing member and means for bodily moving said members within said casket' 16. A burial receptacle comprising a casket, a rotatable corpse receiving member, a rotatablesealing member, means for bodily moving said members within said casket and means for locking said members in various relative positions.

17. A burial receptacle comprising a casket," a container water proof in itself positioned within the casket and means for rotatably adjusting saidcontainer.

18. A lmrial receptacle comprising a casket having a bodyportion and a cover therefor, a corpse receiving member positioned within said casket, and means movable into position within the casket to render said receiving member waterproof.

19. A burial receptacle comprising a casket, a corpse receiving member positioned and movable within said casket, and means movable to one position within the casket to expose the corpse and to another position to render said receiving member waterproof.

20. A burial receptacle comprising a casket having a body portion and a cover therefor, a corpse receiving member positioned within the casket, and means independentof said casket and movable into position relative to said receiving member for rendering said member waterproof.

21. A burial casket comprising a corpse receiving member, a front section adapted to be moved out of position, and means for positioning one edge of said receiving member substantially level with the lower edge of said movable section.

. 22. A burial casket comprising a corpse receiving member and means for positioning said receiving member at an angle from the horizontal to display the corpse.

In testimony whereof we hereby aii'ix our signatures.

ELMER B. RARDON. ,I-IENRY H. BAR-DON. 

